History

In the spring of 1998, we saw growing homelessness, (one-quarter of a million people
across the country), and worsening conditions across the country including
access to basic food and shelter, and a dramatic increase in morbidity and
mortality among homeless people. In the face of all this, a group of people
formedthe Toronto Disaster Relief Committee.

In October 1998 we declared homelessness a
National Disaster. We released a report titled the State of
Emergency Declaration (www.tdrc.net), and we
called for two things:

First, that
federal emergency relief monies be released to communities across the country so
they could provide disaster relief for their homeless populations and;

Second, for a
long term solution, the 1% solution – a national housing programme, where all
levels of government would spend an additional 1% of their budgets to build
affordable housing.

The first item essentially occurred. Prime
Minister Chretien appointed Claudette Bradshaw as our first ever Minister
Responsible for Homelessness and SCPI monies were rolled out across the
country. So, Canada had the distinction of having a Minister responsible for
homelessness but not a Minister with full responsibility for housing!

Now, this did little to end homelessness. As
my colleague Michael Shapcott said “it helped to make homeless people more
comfortable” in their state of homelessness but “they still remained homeless.”

The good news is that we no longer have a
Minister Responsible for Homelessness but we do have a Minister of Housing –
Minister Joe Fontana and there are definitely some steps forward towards a
federal commitment to return to a fully funded social housing programme.

The bad news is that we are far from
achieving the 1% solution.

The 1% solution originates from research
done by Professor David Hulchanski who determined that when our federal,
provincial, territorial and municipal governments were allocating money to
social housing they were spending on average 1% of their budgets.

So, that’s what we’re demanding and what
we’re working towards. It is a huge national campaign that has been endorsed by
many diverse groups across the country.

So, I wanted to use this time to talk about
actions and directions that are needed. Each is tried and true and can be used
or adapted in your community. They’re meant to be food for thought and also an
invitation for you to take action.

I’m going to give you 10 examples.

1.First of all
our language.

No one is hard to house.
It’s the housing that’s hard to find. Whereas Minister Bradshaw used to obsess
around “the chronics” as she called them, and the need for “coordination
of services”, and “transitional housing and supports” for people,
even though once “transitioned” they would have nowhere to go! On the other
hand, Minister Fontana now recognizes that a continuum of housing options, not
just shelter are a right of all Canadians. At least that’s what he says.

In fact, in a recent powerpoint used across
the country during the federal housing consultation process, initiated by the
Minister which just ended in February 2005, Minister Fontana and his staff used
a picture of me with a quote: “No one is hard to house. It’s the housing that’s
hard to find.”

And in the house this week, the Minister
stated:

“ I believe housing is the foundation
of individual dignity. Everyone in this country needs an address. Without an
address, without a home, without a place where a person can feel comfortable,
secure, where no one can ever take it away, where the kids can go to bed at
night not in crowded conditions, not in unsafe homes, not in insecure homes
but in homes where they can sleep so they can learn tomorrow morning.

The men and women who are
the working poor and who go to work each and every day fear that 30 days from
now they may be out of a job or they may lose their house because they are
paying 50%, 60%, 70% and 80% of their income toward housing.”

2.How do we showcase the point
that “no one is hard to house?”

I now believe it is critical that in all our
communities we showcase local housing projects. Ones that were built years ago
and ones that are now under development. That does two things: it directly and
visually shows what the housing looks like, who the people are that now live
there or could be living there. We, in fact, have the experience of developing
housing in our country and we desperately want to still do that. So the federal
government better cough up some money for programmes so we can do just that.

So how do we showcase housing?

ØWe can push and promote local projects when they go
to municipal boards, committees or regional and city councils for approval. Fill
the room, speak out in support. Say “Yes In My Backyard”!

ØWe can donate and fundraise for housing projects.

ØWe
can take the media to these projects for a tour

ØWe
can take our local politicians to these projects for a tour. For example, I
recently took a somewhat conservative local Toronto City Councillor to a
supportive housing project and we had breakfast with the residents; I took
Minister Fontana on one of my disaster tours only I rejigged it to show him
housing projects already built and some just waiting for money, where the groups
have found a site and architects have developed plans and fundraising has
started.

3.Champion the innovations.

When innovations occur they capture the
public’s imagination. For example, we showcased several types of pre-fab houses
at Tent City because they are a Canadian product that is used internationally
for disaster relief housing around the world, usually after a natural disaster.
In fact DuraKits will be sent as part of Tsunami relief.

We used DuraKits at Tent City for the
man-made disaster of homelessness. They are cheap, sturdy and can literally be
lifted off a flat-bed truck with a crane and plopped down on land.

This is fast, cheap and efficient housing
that can immediately help people. The concept is currently being developed in
York Region for individual housing and shelter use for families. It is
brilliant, especially when you consider the health risks of keeping so many
people in the abnormal conditions of forced congregate living that we find in a
shelter.

4.Belinda
Stronach.

We can use popular cultural moments. So for
example, homeless and housing coalitions and projects north of Toronto in Ms.
Stronach’s riding of Newmarket Aurora would do well to give her a little support
this week. A letter of congratulations, a call to her riding executive and
constituency office, followed by an invitation to tour some of their local
projects and perhaps an offer to take her out on their Street Outreach van. Ms.
Stronach is widely considered as responsible for the key budget vote yesterday
and for 1.6 billion dollars for housing,

However, NDP
leader Jack Layton put it there.

All of us across the country must now hound
our MPs for that money to roll out.

5.Speaking of
heroines and heros….

Who are your local heroes and how can you
use them, draw them out to help you? We know who some of our Medicare heros are
– Shirley Douglas for example. We don’t have many famous housing champions so we
need to draw them out of their artists’ studios, or the movie set, or the hockey
arena.

We’re currently trying to entice a few
famous Canadians to be involved in a forum on discrimination against homeless
people and the need for social housing. We’re also in the process of organizing
a rock concert.

6.Media.

Recognizing that yes, there is a monopoly
within the media and there is a certain agenda, there are nevertheless ways to
work with the media. This involves for example:

ØCultivating
relationships

ØOffering
and suggesting stories and assisting journalists with background work.

ØBeing
willing and able to provide them with info on the record or a perhaps a
memorable quote

ØBeing
prepared to present to an editorial board and provide them with a
homeless/housing 101 on the issue

ØTours.
I took Michael Valpy on one of my first ever disaster tours for journalists.

ØWriting
your own stuff – letters to editor, opinion pieces

ØLook at other forms of media: Convince a
documentary film maker that a particular project would be visually interesting
and would be a unique story. For example, a project that will convert an old
warehouse into housing on the top levels, CED on the bottom; in the Tent City
film ‘Shelter from the Storm’ the film maker Michael Connolly tells the story of
squatters and why they wanted their own place, even if it was only a shack. He
had to add a new ending. It now ends with the TC people in housing – real
housing – their own housing.

ØLearn
French or have francophone spokespeople because Radio Canada does exceptional
coverage of this issue. Why not turn to the ethnic press within your own
community because this issue will interest them?

7.National
events.

Use national events and their opportunities.

In 1999 when Mayor Mel Lastman brought
people to Toronto from all across the country to hear from Anne Golden, who had
authored his task force on homelessness, TDRC used that opportunity to have a
community caucus. We booked space, in council chambers in fact, where the
community agency people and homeless people could come together. We formed the
National Housing and Homelessness Network (NHHN) that day and Mel paid the bill
for that, inadvertently helping to create a strong national housing advocacy
group! TDRC is now the national secretariat for the NHHN.

Each year, when the
federal-provincial-territorial housing ministers meet, or the FPT meeting, as it
is called, we join with our partners in the National Network, and depending on
the location, for example, if it’s London, then usually ourselves, FRAPRU, join
in on the event. In Gatineau Quebec, last November FRAPRU members came from all
over the province plus folks from London, Halifax and Edmonton. We always ask to
be on the agenda and usually just get a delegation that meets with the 2
co-chairs, although Minister Fontana, last year ensured we had a full hearing.
We always bring our supporters, our activists, people who may be homeless or
underhoused, or poor tenants.

We always build a house at the FPT
meeting.Lately, it’s been a straw-bale house – it’s visual, it’s
symbolic, the people love doing it, the media love it.

We always issue a Report Card
– on how the federal government is doing province by province and in the
territories on their promises to fund and build housing. In fact, politicians
have become very sensitive about our Report Card, often questioning their B-, C
or D, hoping to get a higher grade I guess.

There are ways that you in your own
community could be involved with us. Each month we have a national conference
call where we update each other, develop strategies and actions. We still need
more representation in particular from Alberta, from regions in BC, from
Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and from northern Ontario.

We also celebrate National Housing Day -
November 22 each year. That’s the day that the Big City Mayors Caucus endorsed
the TDRC’s Disaster Declaration. You can build on what’s happening in your own
community or create an event for this year. Consider holding a march, a rally, a
speak out, a press conference, a concert, a fundraising event for housing – but
don’t make it a research event. Call us and we’ll help you with ideas.

Our table is in the main lobby. Please visit
our table before you leave today. Take our contact information. Meet Sarah Ayers
our staff and check out our web site. We have a list serve you can be part of
and you will receive regular updates on the issues.

8.This
conference is a national event!

At conferences like this it is possible to
pass a significant resolution or make a statement. This is an historic time in
our struggle, the word resistance got used the other day. We have wording today
that was developed by several of the leading experts on housing and human rights
and I propose that this body of people today consider endorsing this statement.

9.If you are to
do research….

Please make it useful, make it alive,
something that will not sit on a shelf or indulge curiosities that may be only
that. Please don’t consider this situation of homelessness and all the problems
associated with it as simply an academic exercise or just an interesting
research question. It is about people’s lives and if you do have the time and
money to do research ask yourselves some questions: how will the people affected
by homelessness, ill health, discrimination and prejudice benefit? What policy
reforms are likely to come from your work? Is it necessary? Is the issue really
that complicated? Are you sure that the research will not provide the tools for
coercive policies that are not positive public policies, for eg. around street
census, and coercion into treatment. How can you link with the broader academic
community that looks at housing as the first and foremost means to respond to
homelessness?

10.If
you are to do policy work….

Please think about the word blueprint. How
can you, your agency, your institution begin to think about the concept of a
blueprint to end homelessness in your community? A blueprint that will include
targets for housing and be based on values that mean solutions that respect
human rights versus legislating people away with laws banning sleeping outside,
or panhandling, or squeegeeing, or just opening emergency shelters in winter
months, only to close them in May.

We need a national strategy to end
homelessness.

To quote a young Jarvis student (my
daughter) who a number of years ago wrote:

"We should not be shy when demanding to be
part of the democratic process: it belongs to us as much as any politician or
government body: we have ourselves to blame for allowing politicians to do what
they have. Omission is submission is permission." Idella Sturino

In closing let’s remember the words of
Linda McQuaig from our opening day. Linda provided us with a historical context
to our situation today. She reminded us that most wins have come when there is a
mass movement of people who voice their concern and participate in fighting for
change.